Week 28

Counting by weeks now. It'd drive me nuts to count by days. The adjusted due date is 36-37 weeks. That puts it in late November, around the 28th. The c-section won't be scheduled until a few weeks prior. I'm seeing the doc weekly so progress and that naughty placenta will be monitored.

We didn't actually need an ultra sound today. Too bad, because Cletus was unusually mellow this morning. Usually he's so squirmy. The doc and sonographer were awesome about it (just a wee mix up as we'd had one last week) and still Doppler-ed the heart and took a few images. I love hearing the heartbeat! It was 136 bpm.

It's funny to go from thinking we'd have a Christmas baby to a Thanksgiving baby. My wonderful OB said she'll hope for the 27th, so babe can be a Sagittarius like her! Too fun.

I'm making an album with the sonogram images. Can't believe it. Usually my crafty tendencies stop before photo albums and scrapbooks. S'okay, it'll look homemade but they will be in an album! Like I'll have any desire to do that after the kid arrives. I'll be sneaking in naps.

Speaking of naps, one sounds good about now...zzzzzz

No News... is Good News

Baby-Mama here. Been on bed rest for two weeks now. Nine more to go!

It is a little tiresome. I balance asking for things to be brought to me, and getting up periodically. My doc said I can and should get up now and then. We're still being really careful since we want so much to avoid a second bleed. It may not be avoidable, but staying relatively horizontal seems to be a good thing! Baths are a treat, as are the occasional foray into the kitchen to grab a snack.

I was joking how much bed rest puts me in common with the older folks I took care of when I was a caregiver. Use of assistance devices? Check! Love my shower chair. Monitoring my medications carefully? Yes, I have a pill box and time taking my meds and vitamins throughout the day. Looked forward to visiting the doctor? Oh heck yes, that meant an outing in the car! The fresh air was fabulous and I could see the leaves changing color, even from my reclined position. Obsession with my bowel functions? 'Fraid so! Those iron pills and vitamins plus not moving around much makes me very happy to have Colace.

I love visitors. Makes me feel connected to the outside world. Lots of folks have come by and I'm so happy to have them. I have tons of magazines, and books, borrowed DVDs, and the internet - my smart phone, a borrowed iPad, and my laptop. My knitting project is nearby and I've added a few rows here and there. I can take a nap at will. So far, so good. I'm not going nuts yet!

We're Home!

They let me out of the hospital yesterday. Hurrah!

Evidently I had ~2pints of blood loss. I'm taking iron to build my stores back up. Bed rest is the doc's orders so I'm either laying in bed or on the couch. I am allowed to get up to go to the bathroom, shower or bathe, or grab a quick snack. Thursday I'll go to a follow up appointment.

Life is good! I'm so glad to be back at home. Ask me again in 2 weeks - by then I may be going stir-crazy.

Here we are.

It's midday on Wednesday. Cletus is doing well! Mom-to-be is doing well.

Monday was not such a great day. The placenta position is a full placenta previa, resting completely over the cervix. We've known about this for weeks. It's not preventable, as the position of origin seems to be determined at the time of implantation (when lil Cletus chose his spot to 'stick' on the wall of the uterus). It can cause bleeding, sometimes severe, particularly if the placenta has a full previa.  I've been hoping it would move up and off of the cervix. Sending it secret messages to move move move up up up!

No dice. I had bleeding and fluid loss on Monday morning. We rushed to the ER, and went straight to Labor and Delivery. There were IVs and monitors, and baby Cletus was hooked up to the NST. I was able to hear his heart beat and they could watch for contractions. The biggest concern was making sure labor wasn't starting and that the bleeding wasn't severe. I was hooked up to an IV with drip insulin and glucose solution to keep me hydrated. I couldn't eat or drink, in case they needed to send me to surgery for a c-section.

Even though I was anxious and scared, it was delightful to realize how often little Cletus had hiccups. From what I can figure, the glucose solution went straight into me, then into the amniotic fluid, and baby boy swallows that fluid to get his nutrients. Well straight sweet stuff gives him those hiccups!! He was also a very hyper guy, flipping and flopping around. It was even hard for the nurses to find him on the monitors, because he was so squirrrely.

They have been taking good care of us. Fortunately the bleeding has subsided and now they are just keeping an eye on things for the next 5-7 days. I'm off all of the monitors, back on my insulin pump, and am allowed to eat and drink. I'm on full bed rest, and will be for the rest of the pregnancy. What happens in the next few days to few weeks will determine if I do my bed rest at home, or in the hospital. We want Cletus to stay in utero for as long as possible. I'd love it if we can stretch the 26 weeks we're at now to 37 weeks. 32 weeks would be okay. Every week we can gain is a blessing to let his organs continue to develop and grow. I'm comforted to know that our hospital has a great neonatal intensive care unit. It'd be even better to skip the NICU altogether.

We are lucky to have wonderful family and friends, coworkers and online buddies. Thank you all for your love and support. Every bit of positive energy is appreciated and welcomed. I apologize if we haven't been able to get in touch in person; it's been a bit of a crazy time. I've been telling you all about this from the Mom-who-is-gestating-perspective, but I can say that Pappa is doing a great job of taking care of me. And taking care of our two dogs, and the house, and communicating with everyone, and bringing me things to keep me entertained while I'm laid up. Even though this situation is less than ideal, we're doing all we can to follow the doctor's orders and stay positive.

There is a lot to be happy for. Hang in there Cletus! You're not done yet, you need to keep on cookin'.

Preggo Brain. Forgot about the u/s.

I never believed in "preggo brain". I thought it must be an exaggeration or a product of poor sleep. Now I know that it's real. I missed a friend's bbq yesterday, because I thought it was today. Oops. I walk into a room forgetting what I wanted to grab. I've pulled up a browser and forgotten what I exactly I was going to type into the google search bar.

So, the ultra sound last week. It was good! Baby Cletus still has great looking internal organs. He's still as cute as all get-out. 1 lb and 11 oz in weight, but I couldn't tell you how long he is. Good size, good sonogram results. The placenta still isn't in the right place, and we're still calling it placenta previa. Meh, we'll see if it decides to move to a more suitable position or not. If not, it'll be a scheduled c-section for Cletus. On the plus side, he'll end up with a nicely shaped melon via the birth-canal bypass. Or as I've come to call it, the 'Escape Hatch'!

Feeling a bit spoiled, but loving it!

Having a baby is a pretty life changing event. I'm not staying anything new there. We're pretty lucky because we were able to plan it out, relatively loosely, and that conceiving worked out for us. The planning was important for Mom-to-be's health (that's me!), since having Type 1 diabetes makes being pregnant a little more complex. We feel ready. We really want this.

Now, that doesn't mean I stop dead in my tracks once in awhile and think "OMG, WHAT HAVE WE DONE??" We're in it to win it; not only do we want it, we are willing to trade in sleep, privacy in the bathroom, going out at the spur-of-the-moment, and any glimmer of a chance that we'll have an un-messy house. (Ha, like we ever had a spic-n-span house to begin with!). It's a glorious thing to want this baby. It's still very intimidating to be 100% responsible for a tiny human being!

So many of our family and friends (my almost-typo was 'fiends' right there. I count my favorite fiendish-ones as some of my closest friends!) are so happy and excited for us. I love it. We love it. We're so appreciative of the love, care, and support. Future-papa enjoys the brutally honest words of advice from his coworker, a Dad with four kids.

Can I just brag a little bit about how darned spoiled we are? I was so tired last week, and my Mom not only took me out to dinner but she also helped me clean up around the house for an hour. I've been given baby clothes in many sizes, maternity clothes appropriate for work, a nursing pillow, breast pump, bpa-free bottles, changing table, jumper, two strollers, two car seats, baby bath, convertible crib with bedding, vibrating baby papasan chair, tummy-time play mat, diaper pail... We LOVE it. I mean, our hardest problem right now is figuring out where to store things, which technically really isn't a problem.

I'm learning that a lot of circles of friends will save baby and kid things to pass along to each other. It seems to me that as soon as we don't need something, we can do the same and help another parent-to-be. Beautiful, re-use circle. I love that too! My local university has a 'clothing closet' for student parents to trade clothing in/out of as well.

I'm particularly thankful because we have some home repairs to do before Cletus arrives and we want to hop on them. My Mom has offered to help paint the nursery, and we want to put in some new carpet. Oh yes, carpet that the dogs haven't sullied. It isn't time to panic (YET), but we're going to get a jump on some of our 'projects'.

We're more than half-way there!